Has It Happened To You Yet?

Ah, it wouldn’t be the new year without something new to adapt to, and if you have either a Free or Premium account on LinkedIn, you will be seeing some changes soon.

LinkedIn are making some big changes which are being rolled out at the moment. If you haven’t had them yet they are on their way. So, I thought I’d look at some of the expected changes so that you won’t be completely surprised when they hit you!

So, what sort of changes are they and how will they affect you? Firstly, the design. It’s a lot simpler. This could throw you at the start, but it’s actually just a lot easier to navigate. Be aware however, you may need to change your banner image to comply with the new pixel requirements.

The ‘advanced search’ button has disappeared, but most of the functionality is still there. You just need to be smarter when you use the Boolean logic in the normal search bar. If you don’t know what that means have a look at my previous post “Finding the Right One” (if you’re a frequent user of the advanced search feature and you’re still confused by this, please don’t hesitate to ask me – I’ll happily talk you through how to adapt to the change).

In the ‘Relationship’ section of each of your contacts, the ‘Note’ and ‘Tag’ functions have been removed (or “retired” as LinkedIn quaintly term it), which, if you use LinkedIn for lead generation purposes, is a bit of a blow. However, there is the option to download this information to Sales Navigator if you decide to upgrade your account (search the LinkedIn Answers for more Information – https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator).

It is now a lot easier to see who’s viewed your profile and posts. With a sleeker, more streamlined appearance profile and post views are now integrated within your dashboard. A full history of recent connections and pending requests is now clearly visible – this is a brilliant new feature that will be particularly helpful if you’re connecting with a lot of new prospects.

The order in which the sections appear on your profile can no longer be moved easily. Your summary section now appears right under your photo and with only a few lines of text visible. This makes it vitally important that you use those words to attract attention and clearly convey what you do and what sets you apart from your competitors.

Advice from the experts: as with all social platform improvements, when the changes are rolled out to the Free and Premium accounts, teething problems could occur, so as a LinkedIn Trainer and Coach, my advice to you would be this: Save all your information, especially your profile summary, recommendations and posts/articles. You can request an archive by going to Privacy & Settings>Getting an archive of your data, and then click the blue Request archive button on the right.

Some experts also recommend downloading a PDF text version, which you can do here.

Export all of your contacts now (just to be safe of course). I’ll be keeping you updated with more changes, however, for now, embrace the new look and keep up your strong LinkedIn game, it’s set to be an even more vital platform for B2B industries this year.

PS. Should you want advice on how to embrace these new changes, or you want to stay on the top of your LinkedIn game and discover how to use existing and new features to boost your current LinkedIn marketing strategy, please download one of my free e-Books: